If you’re tired of hearing about Johnny Football, you better invest in some earplugs.

Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel made history Saturday night by becoming the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy, and he’ll be back next season to take a shot at matching Archie Griffin.

And maybe the next. And maybe 2015, too. After all, does Manziel have a pro quarterback frame that would invite him to leave early for the NFL Draft?

So he might have three shots to join Griffin in sports’ most exclusive club. At least he’s got one Heisman under his belt for that attempt, unlike Notre Dame quarterback Ron Powlus, about whom announcer Brent Musburger once famously wondered on-air way too early in his freshman year “How about three Heismans?”

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Even for Mr. Football, that’s going to be easier said than done.

Before Griffin, there was Army’s Doc Blanchard, who won the Heisman in 1945 as a junior, the first underclassman to do so. But Blanchard injured his knee to start the 1946 season, and teammate Glenn Davis walked off with the award in their senior year.

Doak Walker and Vic Janowicz also failed to win it their senior years, and upperclassmen dominated for the next 24 years before Griffin came along and won the award twice.

Griffin could be considered college football’s version of the perfect 1972 Dolphins, who pop the cork every year when the final undefeated team loses. Not to say that he means future Heisman winners ill will, but it’s a heck of an achievement to have by yourself.

Tim Tebow started a run of three straight sophomores winning the Heisman in 2007, and he seemed like a lock to win at least one more. But he was burned by a plague that could one day affect Manziel’s future Heisman electorate – Heisman Hype Fatigue.

Tebow had the most first-place votes in 2008 after leading Florida to the BCS title game, but he was left off a lot of ballots due to the polarizing nature of the Tebow Phenomenon. Some people were (and still are) just flat tired of hearing about Tebow, and it hurt his chances over the next two years.

Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford won instead, then went on to lose the BCS title game to Tebow and pals.

Bradford hurt his knee in an opening loss to BYU the next season, and his repeat Heisman chances were gone before they ever really existed. Alabama’s Mark Ingram picked up the ball and won a wide-open race at the end of the season, but he too got the early injury bug as a junior and never recovered. Ingram left for the NFL after the 2010 season.

One would think that if the “Most Outstanding Player in College Football” comes back the next year, you would think you’d have to debunk him as the best player before you anoint someone else.

But sometimes, voters just get a glimpse of a shinier object.

Oklahoma’s Billy Sims came back in 1979 and scored more touchdowns than in his Heisman season and had almost as many yards, but USC’s Charles White swooped in and snatched the trophy from him. White set plenty of records and had an amazing 261-yard, four-touchdown game against Notre Dame – and back then, everyone was watching that one. You didn’t have the option of flipping over to watch Louisiana-Monroe play Troy on ESPN8 the Ocho.

Some guys debunk themselves before we even get a chance to do it for them.

BYU’s Ty Detmer came off an amazing year in 1990 as the biggest favorite to win since Rome against Carthage. But he and the Cougars were shocked by an 0-3 start and Detmer’s chances were left for dead. He finished the 1991 season with an incredible comeback against Marshall Faulk and San Diego State, as he threw for 599 yards to turn a 45-17 deficit into a 52-52 tie (yeah they had ties then, kids), but it was too late.

Across the country, some guy named Desmond Howard struck a pose, and that’s all the voters needed to see.

One Heisman winner even debunked himself a year early.

Back in 2003, voters still mailed their ballots in (yeah they had paper mail then, kids), and most of them had already voted for Oklahoma’s Jason White before the Big 12 title game. In that game, which seemed like a foregone conclusion, the Wildcats crushed the Sooners by four touchdowns and made White look very average.

Many columnists opined that they wish they had their vote back. But White won the Heisman and even got 171 voters to pick him again in 2004, but there was no way he was going to fool the entire electorate twice. Matt Leinart validated their choice when USC walloped Oklahoma in the title game, but the USC quarterback was beaten out in 2005 by his ineligible teammate Reggie Bush – or as the Heisman Trust calls him, He Who Shall Not Be Named.

Manziel has a chance to truly make history, but it’s not going to be a walk in the park. College football seasons are living, breathing, growing organisms that cannot be predicted in August. Take this year’s race, where highly-respected college football guru Phil Steele didn’t even name a candidate who got to the Heisman dinner in his season preview until the 19th guy on the list – Collin Klein.

Where are those other 18 guys? Debunked, where else.

Johnny Football was nowhere on the radar back then. Now he’ll be the face of college football, for better or worse, as Tebow was.

That’s a heavy load to carry, and almost eight decades of history say winning another Heisman is darn difficult, even for an already Texas-sized legend.

— Matthew Osborne is the editor of The Trentonian and a Heisman Trophy voter. He can be reached at 609-989-7800, ext. 201, or mosborne@trentonian.com. Follow him on Twitter @trentonianozzy.

About the Author

Matthew Osborne is the editor-in-chief of The Trentonian, where he was the sports editor from 2007-2012. He writes a Heisman Trophy column for Digital First Media and is a voter for the award. Reach the author at mosborne@trentonian.com
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